24 hours after, Nigeria still in the dark as National grid collapses for 6th time in 2024
Nigeria has been hit by darkness for over24 hours as the National grid recorded another collapse on Monday.The Nigerian power grid experienced another collapse on Monday, October 19, 2024, marking the sixth time that the residents of the the country have being plugged to total darkness.
According to data obtained from the Nigerian System Operator’s portal (niggrid.org), between 7:00 pm and the time of filing this report, the grid recorded an unprecedented zero Megawatts (MW).
Data gleaned showed that all 22 generation companies (GenCos) are down as at the time of this report.
This collapse marks the sixth grid disturbance in 2024, adding to challenges that have long plagued Nigeria’s power sector.
Electricity: Consumers decry transfer to Band A, say supply poor
Despite the widespread impact of the blackout, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) had not stated to confirm the occurrence, leaving the public and stakeholders in the dark about the source and resolution of the newest crisis.
On February 4, Nigeria recorded its first blackout in 2024 as the national power grid collapsed at around 11:51 AM, as the TCN-operated grid went down. As a result, the system’s capacity dropped from 2,407 megawatts to just 31MW by midday and to zero by 1 PM.
On August 5, the country recorded its fifth blackout of the year.
The Disco said the development had led to a loss of power supply across its franchise.
“The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company PLC (EEDC) wishes to inform her esteemed customers of a general system collapse that occurred at 18:48 hours today, 14th October 2024. This has resulted in the loss of supply currently being experienced across the EEDC network.
“Consequently, due to this development, all our interface TCN stations are out of supply, and we are unable to provide services to our customers in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo States.
“We are on standby awaiting detailed information of the collapse and restoration of supply from the National Control Centre (NCC), Osogbo”, he said.
Also, Eko Distribution Company confirmed the grid collapse.
It wrote,
“Dear Valued Customer,
“Kindly be informed there was a system collapse at 18:48hrs which has resulted to a loss of power supply across our network.
“We are currently working with our partners as we hope for speedy restoration of the grid. We will keep you updated as soon as power supply is restored.
“Kindly bear with us.”
DAILY POST observed power supply was interrupted around 6:50 pm on Monday.
In August 2024, the grid recorded partially which resulted in a blackout. The national grid also collapsed in July this year.
Data from the Transmission Company of Nigeria showed that the country’s national grid has collapsed about 227 times in the last 14 years.
This comes amid the hike in electricity tariff in April by 240 percent which has worsened the hardship Nigerians are faceling.
TCN says power restored to 90% substations
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) on Tuesday said the ongoing restoration of the national grid which collapsed on Monday is ongoing and almost completed.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Public Affairs General Manager of TCN, Ndidi Mbah, said that the national grid experienced a partial disturbance, on Monday, 14th October 2024 at about 6:48 pm.
“The statement said although the recovery of the grid commenced immediately, with Azura power station providing the blackstart, grid recovery reached advanced stages at about 10.24 am, today (Tuesday) when it encountered a challenge that caused a slight setback in the recovery process,” the statement read.
“The slight setback notwithstanding, Mbah said TCN continued with the grid recovery process, which has reached an advanced stage, ensuring bulk power availability to about 90% of its substations nationwide.”
“Efforts to fully recover the grid are still ongoing.” She noted that while recovery efforts began immediately—with the Azura power station providing the initial blackstart—there was a setback encountered at approximately 10:24 AM on Tuesday.
Despite this minor setback, Mbah confirmed that TCN has made significant progress in the recovery process, ensuring that about 90 per cent of its substations nationwide now have bulk power availability.
“Supply has been restored to the Abuja axis and other major distribution load centres nationwide,” she added.
Mbah clarified that the partial disturbance did not impact the Ibom Gas generating station, which had been isolated from the grid.
